[diana_eva]

Here's one more. Sorry for posting so much, but I rarely play with humans, and when I do all the deals seem exciting

IMPs. 1st seat, all white. Would you open 4♠ or worry about those clubs too much to preempt partner?

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[eagles123]

4s for me

[Jinksy]

4♠. You're never going to explore slam scientifically, whether you start at the 4, 1, or 0 level. Give the opps the difficult decision.

[whereagles]

4♠ seems fair. Unless pard has like AQxxx, clubs won't matter at all.

[diana_eva]

This was actually a cool hand, where everyone could bid like mad.

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The 4♠ opener spoiled all the fun but looking at the traveller:

- some found a bid over 4♠ in balancing (5H/5D/4N)
- others passed with the 8-5 hand, then managed to find a club fit
- or opened 1♠thus reaching slam (x xx a couple of times)...
- or allowed their opps to play in 4-5 of a red suit, sometimes doubled and making

[whereagles]

There is an option for the North hand, which is to open 3♠ and then bid clubs. That runs the slight risk of a pass out, but if it comes to fruition, it shows at least 7-5.

[Jinksy]

'Slight' seems unrealistic to me. On the actual hand you're probably getting passed out, and it's not especially unusual. Meanwhile, if anyone does bid, you'll be introducing clubs at the five level, when you weren't confident of making at the 4 level.

[gszes]

Bidding is a game of % try and calculate the probability p will
hold Axxxx or better of clubs and less than 2 spades and you will see
that the chances are really are too small to consider. Our hand is
primarily a defenseless 1 sited major suit hand with around 4 losers.
This is a reasonable 4s bid at any vulnerability. P needs a perfectly
fitting honor hand for us to make slam or a real rock crusher to make
slam on their own.

Since those two chances are pretty small the preemptive value of 4s
works best since we have no clue what the opps need to make how much:)))
better to let them guess at a high level.

[Jinksy]

diana_eva, on 2014-December-27, 14:57, said:

- some found a bid over 4♠ in balancing (5H/5D/4N)

This hand is a good case study of why it might be risky on such a weak hand. You give NS another chance to find their slam.

[PhilKing]

Jinksy, on 2014-December-28, 14:10, said:

This hand is a good case study of why it might be risky on such a weak hand. You give NS another chance to find their slam.

Not that good - if you balance with 4NT, the most likely result is 6♦ doubled minus one.

[diana_eva]

PhilKing, on 2014-December-28, 15:49, said:

Not that good - if you balance with 4NT, the most likely result is 6♦ doubled minus one.

Yep, that's exactly what happened for those tables who found a bid there. There were tables in 6 spades, but not over opps interfering. When partner doubled opps, the big black hand left it in.

[Jinksy]

Oops, yeah.